2018 September 25
As an officer working in the force for years, they say they carry memories of case after case.
For Captain Kevin Holt, one of his comes from his early days.
“I was a young reserve officer,” he said.
He was twenty-two-years-old and doing what he loved for free.
It was around the same time Thwana Darrough went missing.
“We were told, ‘hey, get out and canvas the neighborhood. Ask anybody moving did they see anything. Did they see which way she walked to the bus stop, which way she might have walked away from the bus stop’? We did that for weeks after the initial case was filed just to find out if anybody might have been coming through the area that day that we didn’t talk to previously. It was an all-out effort.”
The 16-year-old was leaving to go to school, not knowing that would be the last time she’d be seen in El Dorado.
“No one could understand how that could happen in our city, but it did. That’s the reason we would really love to bring this case to a close.”
Nearly 30 years later that case remains cold.
“That’s the reason we would really love to bring this case to a close,” said Holt.
“I know the captain, Carolyn Dykes, at the time, that became her passion. You know, she really worked that case hard as hard as she worked any other case if not harder because it was a young child.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has made it a point to keep up with cases like Thwana’s.
Every Monday her office highlights missing persons in Arkansas.
They have also launched a database for missing Arkansans.
“We know that someone somewhere has information about these individuals and we want to remind Arkansans about these cases, about these family members to let them know to bring information forward,” said Rutledge.
As the police department continues to look through their wall of unsolved cases, Holt says they will never give up hope that they will one day find the answers they need.
